In 2016 Center for Middle East Development brought together Sheikh Habbash, the Palestinian Authority's former religious affairs minister, and Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein, head of Yeshivat Har Etzion, to discuss the role of religious leaders in conflict mitigation.

“For Turkey, at least up until recently, the Kurdish issue is the more important issue. ISIS is the lesser of two evils,” said CMED Researcher Eric Bordenkircher in an interview about the Istanbul bombings with Peter Tilden on KABC (06/29/16: 1:00—15:10).

Dan-Morgan Russell is joined by two renowned scholars of Middle East studies. Dr. Yvette Bearce (Author of CMED Routledge Series book “The Political Idealogy of Ayatollah Khamenei”) and Dr. Eric Bordenkircher (CMED researcher and lecturer at UCLA, UCR, SMC) contribute their opinions about the current political atmosphere in Iran and how this effects regional relations.

With the hierarchical structure and old guard of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt facing strong push-back from a younger revolutionary faction and a new ideological imperative, there is a chance we might see a permanent fissure that will lead the group on a downward trajectory for the foreseeable future.

On September 2015, The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) came out with a report detailing the experiences of Islamic State (IS) defectors. The Centre gave key recommendations on how to deal with returning fighters. Though the recommendations are helpful, they fall short in one key regard: addressing the specific rehabilitation needs of returning fighters.

For the past five years, the country of Syria has transformed into a battlefield. Today, no one is truly safe. Terrorist, government, and rebel factions are massacring innocent people, and President Bashar al-Assad is drafting all young men to his security forces. Sammar Smesme exposes the appalling reality of everyday life for Syrians and shares interviews with her cousins–one living near Damascus and the other in a refugee camp.